Harding Highway

The Harding Highway was a highway that ran through New Jersey, built in 1923. The highway, now known as US Route 40, was the brainchild of Atlantic County Treasurer and Atlantic City political boss Enoch Thompson, who wanted to build the highway so that a major road would connect Atlantic City to smaller towns, attracting more travelers to the boardwalks along the Atlantic Ocean. Senator Walter Edge upset Thompson by granting a road appropriation bill to Jersey City political boss Frank Hague instead of Thompson in 1920, but Thompson decided to use his connections to the Republican administration of President Warren G. Harding to allow for him to gain federal funding for the highway in 1921. Harding gave a great sum of money to Thompson due to Thompson's assistance with Harding's election in 1920, and the road's construction was overseen by the brother of Atlantic City mayor Edward L. Bader - who ran a construction company - as well as quarry owner Ernie Moran, who paved the roads. The highway would later become a part of the National Highway System as Route 40, linking New Jersey to Utah through thousands of miles of pavement.